Rachel Dratch Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you like to surf around the web for entertainment news, you might have heard about an upcoming new web project called James Gunn's PG Porn. The writer of classics like Tromeo and Juliet and more shmeh flicks like Scooby Doo 2, Gunn teamed up with his brothers Brian and Sean (Kirk from Gilmore Girls) to create a family-friendly world of porn.

That's right -- vignettes where the delivery man actually delivers what he's supposed to with no added packages. (Read Gunn's take on it here.) Each time, mainstream actors will be teamed with porn stars for these little clips, which will be aired over at Spike.com. First up: Nathan Fillion and Aria Giovanni in Nailing Your Wife. So I wonder: who else could benefit from this insane, and possibly hilarious, idea?

5. Rachel Dratch -- Outside of SNL, she's had stints in flicks like Harold, but imagine what buzz she could create with a porn star.
4. David Duchovny -- If there's one thing Hollywood drama has taught us, it's that making fun of yourself after the turmoil is a great way to get back in the audience's good graces.
3. Brad Pitt -- Okay, so he doesn't really need it, but I'd love to see more of the crazy gym dude from Burn After Reading.
2. Michael Cera -- He needs to rip out of soft, awkward teen mode ... maybe a porn icon would help.
1. Tom Cruise -- For years now, discussions of his acting have been interlaced with his Scientology practices. But then Tropic Thunder came and critiques gave way to laughter. This project could not only help keep the excitement up, but also battle other online clips that bash him. (Think Jerry O'Connell spoofing that ultra-secret Scientology video.)

Four years after Connie and Carla failed to set the world on fire, Nia Vardalos has left the writing to someone else while returning to the safe turf of Greece for her new film, My Life in Ruins. Vardalos plays an Athens tour guide tired of all the grating tourists, obnoxious locals, and scheming colleagues in her life, and if the trailer -- link removed at request of studio -- (for those who don't mind Greek subtitles) is any indication, things might just change for the better soon enough.

There has yet to be any specific Stateside release date announced -- Fox Searchlight tentatively has it scheduled for 2009 -- but the crowdpleaser pedigree of Vardalos and director Donald Petrie certainly doesn't hurt the film's chances of outgrossing the $8 million that Connie raked in theatrically (whether or not the downright loud pairing of Harland Williams and Rachel Dratch will is a different story).

Also in the name of safe-bet follow-ups is I Hate Valentine's Day, a rom-com written and directed by Vardalos that reunites her with My Big Fat Greek Wedding love interest John Corbett. That project also bears an equally vague '09 release date, but I have trouble thinking that it couldn't be out of post-production and in theaters by next February.

Over a year ago, Erik Davis brought you word that Nia Vardalos was coming back, and that she was gaining rare access to the 2,500-year-old landmark -- Athen's Acropolis. That's not to shabby for a woman who hasn't found any success even remotely comparable to her break-out indie hit -- My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Nevertheless, My Life in Ruins is currently filming under the watchful eye of director Donald Petrie. It follows a Greek tour guide (Vardalos), and co-stars Richard Dreyfuss, Rachel Dratch, Harland Williams, and Alexis Georgoulis. After shooting at the Oracle of Delphi and Olympia* (site of the first Olympics), this past Saturday the cameras finally hit the Acropolis.

Talking to Reuters, Vardalos says: "No one has ever been granted permission to shoot at the ancient sites. This is huge." Apparently, this has been in the works for years, starting with a request during the 2004 Summer Games. "It was a lot of dinners and hand shaking, a lot of requesting permission and really assuring them that we would leave the ruins exactly as we found them." They got what they wanted, but only for one day. How's that for production pressure? It'll make it tougher that the crew won't be allowed to eat or drink on the site. I'm sure it will be a mixture of happiness and huge stress. Let's just hope that they don't have the Valkyrie film woes.

After all of this effort and unprecedented access, will it all be worth it? It's Vardalos' Greek security blanket, which should help it, but it could always become the next Connie and Carla, and being Greek didn't help the Big Fat bomb of a TV show. Anyone want to make predictions?


*Edited to include proper site of first Olympic Games.

Kristin Cavallari, star of the vacuous yet incredibly popular reality show/drama Laguna Beach, is taking a page from Lindsay Lohan's playbook. Lohan had a hit on her hands with Mean Girls, in which she starred with several Saturday Night Live veterans, inluding screenwriter Tina Fey. Cavallari tells MTV News that she will be appearing in Spring Breakdown, with SNL stars Rachel Dratch and Amy Poehler (one of the best Weekend Update hosts in the show's history, and -- surprise -- she was in Mean Girls). Dratch co-wrote the screenplay for the film which will also star Parker Posey and Amber Tamblyn.

According to Cavallari, "It's a comedy about girlfriends that missed out on spring break because they were losers in high school, and now they're older and they go on a college spring break." Cavallari will play one of the "bitchy, mean girls," bringing to light yet another similarity to Lohan's film.

Again, the word vacuous comes to mind, but I hold out some hope because of Dratch and Poehler's involvement. Cavallari may get the young folks into the theater, but these two SNL vets provide the most hope for the film actually being entertaining. Posey has respectable comedy chops as well (check out a little-seen film called Clockwatchers if you don't believe me).

Spring Breakdown will open sometime next year.

Hands up, who doesn't know that any movie about spring break exists entirely as an excuse to get nubile young women and hot frat boys to take off their clothes? Yeah, that's what I thought. But we can see that crap on MTV, pretty much 24-7. Plus, there's always Girls Gone Wild, right? So why the hell do people keep making spring break movies? Does anyone even go see them? Regarding the latter question, at least, Warner Brothers is fervently hoping the answer is a resounding yes: They're producing Spring Breakdown, another dumb-sounding spring break movie with a cast that just might be its saving grace.

Starring indie darling (and proud star of Blade: Trinity) Parker Posey, the incredibly funny Amy Poehler and someone named Rachel Dratch (according to the IMDb, she's been on SNL since 1999, and is in A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. with Poehler), the movie has a plot that any of us could accurately guess, based only on those names. Yep, it's about some thirtysomething women who try to shake things up by going on vacation to a spring break hot-spot. Say it with me now: Yawn. The thing is, though, that at least Posey and Poehler could be hilarious in a movie like this, if they're allowed to show that they're in on the joke -- if the script lets them mock the pathetic absurdity of the whole venture, it actually could be pretty good. If not? Parker Posey, you are dead to me.

The movie starts shooting in the spring break haven of LA later this summer.